Mortgage Modification, Equitable Subordination, and the Honest But Unfortunate Creditor

Mortgage Modification, Equitable Subordination, and the Honest But Unfortunate Creditor PDF Author: Juliet M. Moringiello
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
Mortgage foreclosures are at an all-time high and property values in many parts of the country have declined precipitously. Yet bankruptcy, which is often a last resort for individuals in financial distress, provides little relief to a homeowner who finds that her mortgage debt exceeds the value of her home. The reason for bankruptcy's inadequacy in this regard is the Bankruptcy Code's prohibition on the modification of home mortgages, a prohibition that became part of bankruptcy law in 1978, when most home mortgage loans were 30-year fixed rate loans made by savings and loan associations. While most secured loans can be stripped down in bankruptcy, reflecting the payment that the lender would receive if it were forced to foreclose on the collateral, a home mortgage loan must be paid in full, giving the lender more than it would receive under state law. In recent years, abusive mortgage practices have proliferated. These abusive practices, which have prevented homeowners from building equity in their homes, harm not only the debtor, but also the debtor's other creditors. Despite their behavior, however, home mortgage lenders who engage in these practices continue to receive favorable treatment in bankruptcy. In this paper, I argue that creditors should be denied special treatment in bankruptcy unless they behave in an “honest but unfortunate” manner. Judges can deny this special treatment by using a time-honored bankruptcy principle, the principle of equitable subordination, to subordinate the unsecured portion of a home mortgage loan to all secured and priority claims. While equitable subordination, by itself, will not solve the foreclosure crisis, it may, by reducing the claims of abusive mortgagees, deter abusive lending practices in the future.

Mortgage Modification, Equitable Subordination, and the Honest But Unfortunate Creditor

Mortgage Modification, Equitable Subordination, and the Honest But Unfortunate Creditor PDF Author: Juliet M. Moringiello
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
Mortgage foreclosures are at an all-time high and property values in many parts of the country have declined precipitously. Yet bankruptcy, which is often a last resort for individuals in financial distress, provides little relief to a homeowner who finds that her mortgage debt exceeds the value of her home. The reason for bankruptcy's inadequacy in this regard is the Bankruptcy Code's prohibition on the modification of home mortgages, a prohibition that became part of bankruptcy law in 1978, when most home mortgage loans were 30-year fixed rate loans made by savings and loan associations. While most secured loans can be stripped down in bankruptcy, reflecting the payment that the lender would receive if it were forced to foreclose on the collateral, a home mortgage loan must be paid in full, giving the lender more than it would receive under state law. In recent years, abusive mortgage practices have proliferated. These abusive practices, which have prevented homeowners from building equity in their homes, harm not only the debtor, but also the debtor's other creditors. Despite their behavior, however, home mortgage lenders who engage in these practices continue to receive favorable treatment in bankruptcy. In this paper, I argue that creditors should be denied special treatment in bankruptcy unless they behave in an “honest but unfortunate” manner. Judges can deny this special treatment by using a time-honored bankruptcy principle, the principle of equitable subordination, to subordinate the unsecured portion of a home mortgage loan to all secured and priority claims. While equitable subordination, by itself, will not solve the foreclosure crisis, it may, by reducing the claims of abusive mortgagees, deter abusive lending practices in the future.

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy PDF Author: Joseph Spooner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107166942
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
Excessive household debt has allowed for economic growth, but this model has become increasingly unstable. Spooner examines bankruptcy law as a potential solution.

Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit

Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit PDF Author: Adam B. Ashcraft
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437925146
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
Provides an overview of the subprime mortgage securitization process and the seven key informational frictions that arise. Discusses the ways that market participants work to minimize these frictions and speculate on how this process broke down. Continues with a complete picture of the subprime borrower and the subprime loan, discussing both predatory borrowing and predatory lending. Presents the key structural features of a typical subprime securitization, documents how rating agencies assign credit ratings to mortgage-backed securities, and outlines how these agencies monitor the performance of mortgage pools over time. The authors draw upon the example of a mortgage pool securitized by New Century Financial during 2006. Illustrations.

Handbook for Chapter 13 Standing Trustees

Handbook for Chapter 13 Standing Trustees PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bankruptcy
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description


Guidelines Manual

Guidelines Manual PDF Author: United States Sentencing Commission
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Criminal justice, Administration of
Languages : en
Pages : 556

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Book Description


A Global View of Business Insolvency Systems

A Global View of Business Insolvency Systems PDF Author: Jay Lawrence Westbrook
Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
ISBN: 9004180257
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
We live in an age of economic turmoil. The recent crises emphasize the need for modern, sophisticated rules to govern businesses in financial distress in order to realize value from distressed companies and to protect economic institutions. This book provides information for legislators, policymakers, lawyers, accountants, academics, and administrators who seek to understand the workings of insolvency laws. Guided by the World Bank’s Principles and Guidelines, it supplements the work in this field done by UNCITRAL.

Pay Without Performance

Pay Without Performance PDF Author: Lucian A. Bebchuk
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674020634
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The company is under-performing, its share price is trailing, and the CEO gets...a multi-million-dollar raise. This story is familiar, for good reason: as this book clearly demonstrates, structural flaws in corporate governance have produced widespread distortions in executive pay. Pay without Performance presents a disconcerting portrait of managers' influence over their own pay--and of a governance system that must fundamentally change if firms are to be managed in the interest of shareholders. Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried demonstrate that corporate boards have persistently failed to negotiate at arm's length with the executives they are meant to oversee. They give a richly detailed account of how pay practices--from option plans to retirement benefits--have decoupled compensation from performance and have camouflaged both the amount and performance-insensitivity of pay. Executives' unwonted influence over their compensation has hurt shareholders by increasing pay levels and, even more importantly, by leading to practices that dilute and distort managers' incentives. This book identifies basic problems with our current reliance on boards as guardians of shareholder interests. And the solution, the authors argue, is not merely to make these boards more independent of executives as recent reforms attempt to do. Rather, boards should also be made more dependent on shareholders by eliminating the arrangements that entrench directors and insulate them from their shareholders. A powerful critique of executive compensation and corporate governance, Pay without Performance points the way to restoring corporate integrity and improving corporate performance.

In Re Erickson

In Re Erickson PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description


Debt's Dominion

Debt's Dominion PDF Author: David A. Skeel Jr.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400828503
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Bankruptcy in America, in stark contrast to its status in most other countries, typically signifies not a debtor's last gasp but an opportunity to catch one's breath and recoup. Why has the nation's legal system evolved to allow both corporate and individual debtors greater control over their fate than imaginable elsewhere? Masterfully probing the political dynamics behind this question, David Skeel here provides the first complete account of the remarkable journey American bankruptcy law has taken from its beginnings in 1800, when Congress lifted the country's first bankruptcy code right out of English law, to the present day. Skeel shows that the confluence of three forces that emerged over many years--an organized creditor lobby, pro-debtor ideological currents, and an increasingly powerful bankruptcy bar--explains the distinctive contours of American bankruptcy law. Their interplay, he argues in clear, inviting prose, has seen efforts to legislate bankruptcy become a compelling battle royale between bankers and lawyers--one in which the bankers recently seem to have gained the upper hand. Skeel demonstrates, for example, that a fiercely divided bankruptcy commission and the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress have yielded the recent, ideologically charged battles over consumer bankruptcy. The uniqueness of American bankruptcy has often been noted, but it has never been explained. As different as twenty-first century America is from the horse-and-buggy era origins of our bankruptcy laws, Skeel shows that the same political factors continue to shape our unique response to financial distress.

Asset Recovery Handbook

Asset Recovery Handbook PDF Author: Jean-Pierre Brun
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821386352
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
This handbook is designed as a 'how-to' manual that guides practitioners as they grapple with the strategic, organizational, investigative, and legal challenges of recovering assets that have been stolen by corrupt leaders and hidden abroad.